Prestige 19½" scale electric / child's guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Prestige are one of those interchangeable brand names that we see on Japanese-made electric guitars from the 1960s and 70s. This one is a bit more unusual than most in that it is a diminutive shortscale guitar with a scale length of just 19½". It was most likely supposed to be a child's guitar, although of course - depending on playability - it could be tuned up as a soprano or piccolo guitar. It's a very simple affair, with a very crude bridge assembly, just a single volume control and no tone, and a single pickup (which does appear to be a gold foil unit, still popular with some and raided from cheapo guitars like these for their tone).

Currently being auctioned on eBay with bidding at $19.99 at the time of writing.

G L Wilson

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Prestige early pointy guitar

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This Prestige has everything of the 1970s plywood Japanese cheapos you still find everywhere for a few euros (or pounds, or dollars) under various brands (and often assumed to be Teiscos): plywood body in redburst finish,  mahogany neck (I sanded off one one day, it really feels like mahogany), faux-tortoise pickguard with too many cheap switches, rudimentary bridge and trem, standard single-coil pickups (the very same Robert Smith put on his Fender Jazzmaster to keep the Top 20 sound he used on The Cure's first album, you remember that story?) 

These guitars usually copy classic designs - mostly stratocasters, but also Mosrites -, but this one I've never seen before, and it's surprisingly announcing the pointy superstrats of the following decade - doesn't  it have something of a classic 1980s Ibanez? The back part even has this strange twist reserved for eccentric models... And the metal control plate is cool too!

Bertram D

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!

Prestige semi-hollowbody guitar

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Additional to the previous post, here is another - quite different - guitar bearing the Prestige brandname. Unfortunately I can tell you nothing about this one because this was a photo I had saved to my hard-drive a little while ago. I guess I meant to blog about it before but unfortunately I have no record of the details.

If anyone out there knows more, please let us know in the usual way!

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Prestige-branded 1960s Japanese 4-pickup solidbody

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I find that this 1960s Prestige 4-pickup guitar bugs me a little, for try as I might, I can't think we're I've seen this guitar before - most likely with a different brand name. I may even have blogged about it before, although I've not turned up anything similar in a search through the archives. I've certainly seen those pickups before; they seemed to be on just about everything guitar-wise coming out of Japan for a period. It reminds me of those guitars we used to have for sale in Wolworths here in the UK, badged with the Top 10 and Top 20 brands. I believe those were made by Teisco; maybe this is too - even though, having said that, any "unknown" Japanese guitar usually ends up with Teisco being given the credit.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!